Tuesday, November 5, 2013

(San Diego, CA)- This year’s J/105 International Masters Championship was
sailed on San Diego Harbor and hosted by the San Diego YC. The eleven
teams that participated were again treated to near perfect “Chamber of
Commerce” weather conditions, with each morning starting out with the
proverbial “marine layer” (e.g. fog) and clearing by the noon starting
time for yet another WNW 8-12 kts sea breeze with plenty of sunshine.
As many of the teams had learned from previous years sailing in the
harbor race course off the spectacular San Diego city waterfront, going
left seemed to pay off about 85% of the time!

Taking
advantage of that “local knowledge” were none other than “The
Commodores” (not the famous singing group!) sailing on Chuck Nichols’s
team from San Diego YC. With a trio of SDYC Staff Commodores aboard, it
was hard to imagine how they ever made decisions going around the race
track; nevertheless Nichols’s team surely knew the local formula for the
harbor as they amassed a nearly un-assailable lead after the first day
of racing, winning three races, taking three seconds
and finishing with a total of 40 pts in eleven races to take the
overall 2013 crown as the "master of masters"! Second was past Masters
Champion John Jennings from St Petersburg, FL. Jennings had StPYC
fellow member Mark Ploch sailing with him and after a slow start on the
first day, gave chase to “the commodores” and finished just eight points
back with 48 total for the event. After an even slower start than
Jennings, J/105 designer Rod Johnstone (sailing with son Jeff J) from
Stonington, CT’s Wadawanuck YC sailed the best last day of any team,
tallying a 1-3-1-9 to finish with 53 pts to leap into third place
overall.

Rounding out the top five for the regatta were St
Francis YC Staff Commodore Bruce Munro’s team taking fourth overall and
yet another StFYC member, Jon Andron and crew, taking fifth by virtue of
winning a tie-breaker over last year’s Masters Champion— Dennis Case of
San Diego YC.

Of
note was the commendable first year’s performance by Sally Honey, the
past two-time 505 World Champion, sailing with her husband Stan Honey
and fellow Yale Sailing Team alumni Peter Isler. Had it not been for
one unfortunate altercation at the windward mark in race two, the
Honey’s were contenders for the top three after five races. As many
master sailors have learned sailing in such a talented fleet, the
Honey’s realized it’s quite difficult to maintain a high-average finish
in the tricky, shifty weather patterns of San Diego harbor.

While
the sailing saw plenty of action and blistering hot competition, the
on-shore social festivities are perhaps the highlight of the regatta and
why many Masters enjoy coming back every year to catch up with one
another and, hopefully, meet some news ones that have joined the “almost
over-the-hill gang”. Again, local San Diego YC host and Chairman for
the event, Jeff Brown and his lovely wife, did a fabulous job organizing
and managing the logistics and volunteers for all participants. Jan
Dekker (owner of the J/105 AIRBOSS) did a fantastic job looking after
all twelve J/105’s, thankfully donated by their proud owners for the
event. As past regatta founder and chairman for years, St Francis YC’s
Don Trask, noted that he was quite proud to have the event in the
capable hands of San Diego YC’s team of sailors and volunteers and was
hoping that he might again be “invited” back next year! SDYC J/105 Masters sailing photo credits- Bronny Daniels (www.joysailing.com) and Bob Betancourt For more J/105 Masters International Regatta sailing information